(Above) Riders round a bend in the course during weekend races at Aonia Pass. (At right) The Wilkes County medical team working at the track over the weekend included (left to right) Jeff Hackney, Shawn Hackney, Greg Scott, Dan Wright, Tina Bailey and Bruce Bailey. Something rare happened this weekend as 1,700 cross-country motorcycle and ATV riders - from top pro to young amateur - gathered at Aonia Pass Motocross for two days of tearing through the woods at top speed.

Nobody broke anything. There was barely a boo-boo among hundreds of riders.

"We had a very mild weekend," said Tina B. Bailey, Operations Manager for Wilkes County Emergency Medical Services. She said that instead of the usual broken legs, ribs, head injuries, and lacerations, the handful of injuries were mild. Everybody walked away.

"On Saturday, we transported three riders to Wills Memorial, and two of those were for dehydration. All three were treated and released. Sunday, we just transported two to Wills, and both of them were treated and released."

Based on their experiences with races in years past, Wilkes EMS had bolstered their usual contingent with standby help available from surrounding counties, and had air ambulances standing by to fly critically injured riders directly to a trauma center in Augusta or Athens.

(Photos by Charlie Burke) And throughout the year, the emergency medical technicians have treated riders injured at Aonia and at nearby Durhamtown Plantation, so they knew what to expect and were ready, Bailey said, for the kind of accidents that riders might have racing in the hundreds through the wooded cross-country course.

"For that number of people, plus the crowd that was there, it went very well," she said. "We were still hustling though, because we had to go from one location to another on the 12-miles course. It's a lot more work because it's so scattered out."

EMS Director Blake Thomson had all the medical workers ride the course on ATVs on Saturday to familiarize themselves with the long and twisty course. "That's a long ride on a four-wheeler," Bailey said, "but we actually rode the 12-mile course on Saturday so we would know where to go when we were needed."

Wilkes EMTs tend to one of only a handful of minor injuries among 1,700 riders competing at Aonia this weekend. Paramedics with their backs to the camera are Dennis Weaver, Paramedic (left) and Daniel Jennings, EMT-I, (right). Facing the camera at left is Greg Scott, EMTI and center, Jeff Hackney, paramedic. However, the next big event at Aonia Pass, she said, is expected to keep them busy. April's motocross qualifier for the Loretta Lynn Motocross Championship will see large numbers of riders racing not through the woods but over the high-flying jumps of the motocross track. "I expect we'll be busy, but I hope we're not," she said.

GNCC spokesman Jason Weigant said that the Maxxis General GNCC was the second-largest GNCC ever, with nearly 1,700 individual racers in motorcycle and ATV classes, and over 1,000 motorcycle racers on Sunday.

The Suzuki GNCC Series continues in two weeks with the Steele Creek GNCC in Morganton, North Carolina. More information is available at GNCCRacing.com.

The Maxxis General GNCC was taped for an airing on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) on Saturday, April 1 at 3 p.m.